The Trendkill Diaries-Book 10:
The Gimped God of Wintersebb
Last time I wrote a diary was the night before I did this:
Question: What happens when you put the most powerful template in the game into
the hands of someone who has no idea what they're doing?
Answer: Very, very, bad things...
I AM THE GIMPED GOD OF WINTERSEBB
Where do I start...?
By all rights, I should be pissed off at how many times I've died in the
past couple of days...I mean, for real...I'm a 50th Level Battlemage. How
the hell do I manage to keep getting myself killed, over and over, and over?
Well, I think I can sum it up in the following formula: M=BDMG.
that translates roughly into:
Me = Big Dumb Melee Guy
I've said over and over again that it doesn't matter how good a template is.
It's the quality of the person using it that will determine the success of the
character. This week I PROVED THAT THEORY.
my template is perfect in every way, but I'm gimped beyond repair. I have
absolutely no skills whatsoever...but I'm learning, and that's the important
part. Some of you may question how exactly I made it to level 50,
with no skills. The answer is easy.
1 Spell Tab
That's it...all 50 levels were worked through with every spell I needed at my
fingertips, all on 1 spell tab...at least I only hunted with 1 spell tab.
When I started out, I had my first spell tab set up with heal self, drain heath,
drain stamina, stm, and reviatlize followed by 2 war spells and the proper vuln
to go along with these spells (ie: flame spells when hunting matties, then
lightning when I moved to lugies, then back to flame spells when I switched to
tuskers) Of course, I had a seperate tab with all of my life protects, and when
I trained Item magic I added my banes to that tab as well. That second tab was
never needed under pressure, only while safely buffing without interruption.
All of my hunting for the last 50 levels was done with the first tab. It had
everything I needed at my fingertips, and never had to worry about switching
between tabs, and that has GREATLY effected my progress since hitting 50.
Since I broke the big Five-Oh, I've completely changed my hunting patterns, as
everyone does after 50. The big problem has been, where the heck do I put all of
these spells that will allow easy access to ALL OF THEM?
You Bash Porcelain Golem for 378 ponts of damage with Kitchen Sink VI
One tab simply isn't enough. I wanna throw everything at em including the
kitchen sink. I keep throwing myself into situations where one or 2 damage types
just isn't going to maximize my output. I'm throwing myself into mobs
of Shadows, Obsidian Golems, Banderlings, Drudges and Virindi. If there are 50
orange dots on my radar, I'm gonna try to kill em all, and I'm gonna do it all
at once, or I'm gonna die trying?
Smart? No.
Fun? HELL YES!!!
BFD if I drop a robe and some mana stones, I'll pick em up on my way back.
Sometimes I even get to loot the body before I die again.
Ok, so I'm in over my head, but I'm getting used to it.
Since when do Mages wear Armor?
Ok, I read ALOT. Mages wearing armor isn't very common, but this stuff is so
sweet, that I'm gonna let it slide. I NEED this stuff!!
This quest was one of the reasons I created a War Spec mage to begin with, so
let's take a little walk through memory lane and revisit my quest for Exarch
Plate.
As soon as I hit 50th level, the first thing I did was put up a post on my
allegiance message board that I was looking for people to help in Heiromancer's
Hall. To put it mildly, let's just say that there was aserious lack of interest.
Thankfully, Khardinal (54th level axer) wanted to go play in the hall, and felt
we could do it fairly easily.
3 corpses later (1 unrecoverable) I gave up and went to kill vitae.
Remember the formula M=BDMG?
I gotta get these spelltabs memorized.
Yep, it did me in. We either needed some more help, or someone who had a working
knowledge of the halls. After vitae was gone, I figured I'd go spend
some time looking around Heiromancers Hall, just try to get a feel for it, and
get a bit better at killing these bandies etc... 3 more corpses and it was time
to pack it in for the day.
The next day I lucked out...
Dark Virindi is a guy I met at the outset of Wintersebb. That was long before
Trendkill was born. We met on the Hamud's Katar Quest.
(It seems, a psychotic bunch of guys between 15th-20th level felt we could make
it through the Hamud's quest. It was hilarious to watch that many teens
gang-bang a Shadow Lt. through a door....but that's another story for another
diary.)
While lurking on ACvault, I saw a post where Dark Virindi mentioned that he knew
Heiromancer's Hall well enough to do it solo, so I message him and asked for
help. Within 15 minutes I was at the end of Heiromancers Hall
collecting Kindling Stones. I grabbed 2 whole packs of the elusive
littlebastards (1 pack of blue, 1 pack of silver). I don't know if he reads this
site or not, and I seriously doubt that he wastes his time reading my diaries,
but on the off chance that he should see this....THANX BRO.
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Hmmm...How can I screw up next?
I know, I'll get greedy!! So off I went deeper into the halls looking for the
Blue Orb. I opened a door, and turned a corner...umm...or tried.....
---------------L-------------A-----------------------G-----
WTF am I doing at the goddamn lifestone? Scrolling up told me that I ran into a
few more Banderling Enforcers and they didn't like me being on their turf.
Grand Total= 7 deaths, 2 unrecoverable corpses, 2 packs of kindling stones.
Over the Mountain
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I've been carrying this stupid Lyceum Recall Gem on me for months. It's about
time I used it. After restocking components and burning my penalty I double
clicked an icon that's been bothering me for a loooong time. This place is
awesome, and everybody should see it once. It's got achitecture reminiscent of
Neydissa's Castle, but on a grander scale. Te Lyceum sits on a Mountain high
above Mayoi and features one of the most beautiful landascape views available in
AC. It's now number 1 on my list of sightseeing attractions in Dereth.
I go to work.
Eaushi the trainer is a Diamond Golem. When you hand him a scribbled note (found
in a room upstairs in the Lyceum on a convenient 30 second spawn) he trasnsports
you into a training dungeon.
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You'll be in a room with 3 doors.
from left to right they read "Ridiculously Easy", "Easy",
and " A Bit Harderthan the second one, but still WAY TOO DAMN EASY"
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...or something to thateffect. That's how they should be labelled anyway.
Of course, I didn't expect this place to be so easy, so I buffed to the hilt.
Mage Minder was running, and I knew I had 17 minutes to finish the first dungeon
before buffs wore off...I hoped that would be long enough.
I went through the first door and jumped down, ran straight ahead, and killed 3
Golems that looked like Vapor Golems. (Although only 40th Level). they each took
one level 6 frost bolt to kill. I stopped to loot the corpses hoping to find a
sunstone geode to make a Heiromancer's Orb...what I found instead was the gem I
needed to make the first part of my armor. Well, I'll be damned, there's the
exit portal.
I handed the trainer a second slip of paper, and there I was back in the
training ground. I stopped to check mage Minder and saw that my buffs had 15
minutes left. The first dungeon had taken less than 2 minutes. Who'd a thunk? So
I dove headlong into the second doorway. 8 spells later (4 vulns, 4 frost bolts,
4 kills) I grabbed the second gem for the armor and portalled out.
5 minutes left on the buffs, so i figured, what the hell, and rebuffed anyway,
just in case. As If...
3rd doorway, same kind of path, These golems were a bit tougher. They actually
put a level 5 vuln on me and hit me for about 60 pts, but it was still over way
too quick. I had all 3 pieces of the armor, but decided to leave it unkindled
for now. I planned on continuing to hunt the golems until they dropped a geode.
NINE GOD-DAMN HOURS LATER I GOT THE GEODE!!!
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No kidding, 4 other people came in and out of the Lyceum while I was there, each
one scoring an orb and the armor, while I kept killing, and killing, and
killing, trying to get the MF'ers to drop what I needed. I ran out of white
tapers 3 times (used over 300 of em), luckily as the other guys were leaving
theye were kind enough to hook me up with a white pea since theye were going
back to civilzation and I was stuck hunting. Hollywood-Shono was one of the guys
who came in while I was there, and he happened to have an extra Blue Orb on him
(the elusive thing which kept getting me killed at HH), which he was willing to
trade me(Ok, he actually had 28 on him. guess he didn't know there was a timer
for turning 'em in. That made my night.
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Ok, I had my Armor, My Heiromancer's Orb, and my Globe of Auberean. That sounded
like everything I needed, except, well, I heard about this dress that a bud's
trade mule might like. If you kill one of the Diamond Golems in the Lyceum it
drops a key for a trunk upstairs, which contains Sasallia's Cooking dress
(cooking mastery 5) so I set about my task. I didn't know what to expect when I
threw Crushing Shame at the Golem, but I definitely wasn't prepared to see a 410
point hit. I laughed out loud, literally. I actually had to run around the side
of the building to avoid the golem that had 1% health, because I almost shot
soda outta my nose and couldn't stop laughing maniacally.
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I actually harmed him to death after that, because, well...why the hell not,
right?
Ok, I had all I needed, so I opened the Lyceum gates and ran up the mountain to
get some screenshots, and picked up the lightweight tome and titan mana charcge
from the building further up the mountain. Did I need these things? No!!, but I
was like a tourist collecting souvenirs. I went back to see if there was a way
back into the Lyceum, but as far as I could see there wasn't. Definitely save
the mana charge and tome for last if you plan on going here. It would suck to
waste a gem to get there and then not be able to get you armor. (Note: I didn't
spend more than 3 seconds looking for a way back in, so there might be. I just
went to get a picture of me knocking on the door.)
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I recalled home to Lin. ( We live in the tavern, which is quite fitting if you
know me.) My guild had just returned from conquering the Lugian Tukal quest, so
all my friends were there as I kindled my armor.
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Making the standard thaumaturgic plate was easy. I only broke 1 stone with a 317
skill. The exarch plate was a bit tougher. I had 2 full packs of stones to start
with, by the time I finished I was down to 5. definitely grab a bunch of them,
or better yet, kindle it in the Heiromancer's hall, if you can live without a
Globe of Auberean.
Now I find myself spending more and more time in the bay on Aerlinthe. I'm
averaging 350-400 pt hits on Vapor golems (I only use cold Vuln 5 with Icy
torment) and there are plenty of banerlings to kill for loot on the beach. I'm
getting used to my spellbars, but they still need some refining...but I'm
learning.
Oh yeah..and most importantly, take your portal spells out of the numbered keys
on your spellbar. There's nothing worse than spending a D-Note to get somewhere
and finding yourself at home 5 minutes later. I'm learning the hard way, but
still I'm learning.
Thx for reading...
Trendkill
Now and Forever to be known as the Gimped God of Wintersebb
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My current stats and some more screenshots can be seen at:
trendkill.0catch.com
Soon enough all the diaries will be available there, along with screenshots
throughout them.